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by purplekitten7856
Summary: An aspiring writer and her ups and downs on the way to publicity. Or not? Things are kind of depressing for Grace. Her friend, Cameron, has a few million YouTube subscribers, where Grace has a would (will?) be published story but no publisher. And even though Grace is jealous of youtubers, will go so far to say she hates them, she might be falling in love with one...
1. Chapter 1

"Grace?" I heard Cameron knock on my door.

"What?" I said, shutting my laptop and getting up, just to stumble across the room to turn on the light.

"Uhh…can you just open the door? Why is it locked anyway?"

"So people like you don't bother me," I muttered, flicking the light switch and unlocking the bedroom door.

"I was writing." I said when I saw Cameron's annoyed expression.

"More like watching anime." She held up an envelope. "Here."

"Why the hell is it open?" I asked before even looking at who it was from.

"Uhh…sorry."

"Oh my, oh my. Camacola, what a good example for your fandom." I laughed.

"I do not have a fandom. I have people who watch my videos."

"Mmk." I looked at the back of the envelope. HarperCollins publishers.

"You read this?" I asked.

"Curiosity got the best of me."

"Curiosity killed the cat." I said.

"But satisfaction brought it back!" she finished with a smile, then went silent for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry." Her face as now sullen.

"Sorry for what?" I crumbled the paper in my hands. I already knew the answer. She wasn't just sorry for reading it, Cameron was sorry that they rejected me, my book, again. I went back in my room.

"Come on…they're just idiots. Your book is awesome!" Cameron stepped hesitantly into my room.

"No. It must suck. They keep rejecting it." I said, pulling out a shoe box and placing the slightly crumpled envelope in it, compact with the oh so many others.

"Hey, not everything will work out in the end. You have to dig through a lot of dirt to find a gem, right? I mean, you said that to me when I started YouTube. And honestly? I sucked major ass."

"Thanks." I said.

"What? Oh... shit. That came out wrong. What I mean is..."

"It's fine. Just forget it. And please, next time, don't read my mail."

"Sorry." Cameron said again.

"Why do you keep saying sorry? Nothing is wrong. Everything is completely fine. I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT." I said, knowing she would ask.

I shooed her out of the room and shut the door. I was aware that that was probably mean. I didn't care. I spent ten minutes trying not to burst into tears, mainly by blinking rapidly, before I slipped my shoes on and opened my door again. Thankfully, Cameron had disappeared. I sighed, walking down the hallway and out the front door. It was raining- which was fitting, considering my mood. I continued walking.

Another day, another rejection letter. And I had reason not to want to talk about it, especially with Cameron. No offense to her, but she didn't really know how I felt. Sure, it took her a few years to get the amount of subscribers she has now. But it was just a year before she had almost one million. I'd been writing since I was 12. I'd been sending things to publishers since I was 18.

I'm 22 now. So is Cameron. We may be best friends, but we are very different. Correction- our families are very different. I come from southern California. I'd rather not talk about my dad, we aren't on speaking terms. But let's just say the last time I talked to him, he said some rather nasty things. That's one reason I moved to London. My mom…rather not speak about her either. I basically cut my whole family out of my life. Just another reason to move to London. There are about five other reasons. But who wants to talk about that?

Cameron, on the other hand, traveled around with her parents a lot. They went to, what is seems like, 40 different countries, and knows Dutch, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Polish. Talk about well cultured. They spent the most time in North Dublin, Ireland. So she now has said accent. Yeah.

And to make it better, we met on a fanfiction website when we were both 16. But we met in real life when she was in California 4 years ago. And when I moved to London 2 years ago, she invited me to move in with her. Currently, Cameron, or Camacola, has 6, 243, 126 subscribers (and counting) on YouTube and going to film school. And what do I have? A stupid dream that for some reason I'm still pursuing and am living off of the money my mom left me. Yay.

I shivered as I continued walking around. I had no location in mind; I just wanted to find somewhere I could cry. So I was confused with myself when I ended up at Starbucks. I don't even like coffee. But it was somewhere to get out of the rain… so I walked in.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Dan's P.o.v.  
"Are you ok?" I asked. Yup. Officially an idiot.

"Uhh…Uhh….y-yeah, I'm fine." The girl answered. She looked sullen, and her hair was damp from rain. "Doesn't seem like it." I pointed to the seat by her.

"Can I maybe sit…? With you." I asked.

"Uhh… Sure." She ran a hand through her hair.

"I'm Dan, by the way."

"I'm aware." She said.

"W-what?"

"YouTube?"

"Oh. Right." I take that moment to look at her fully. The girl has long brown hair, which was falling into her face- by accident or on purpose, I didn't know. She had brown eyes, and was semi-glaring at me, but with tears streaming down her cheeks, it didn't look has intimating as she probably meant it to be. And she wasn't wearing a sweater or jacket, with it pouring down rain outside. So why was she sitting in the middle of a Starbucks?

"I...I'm Grace," She offered.

"And... uh…no offense, but why are you talking to me?" she asked. I can't really answer that question.

"….Something seems wrong?" I said in a questioning tone.

"What? Oh, no. Everything's fine."

"Well….you _are_ kind of crying in the middle of Starbucks."

"I thought I was in the _corner_ of Starbucks."

"Fine, whatever, in the corner of Starbucks. Something is obviously wrong."

"And what if it doesn't matter? What if it's something stupid that I shouldn't even be upset over?" Grace sniffed.

"Well, it must matter to you, if you're this upset." I said.

"True…."she muttered. She wiped her eyes again and tucked some hair behind her ear and sighed.

"Just…ugh... it's just that…well, I'm trying to get my book published and they keep rejecting me..." Grace started out talking slowly, rushing at the end.

"You're an author?"

"I don't think you can be considered an author if you've never had a book published," Grace mumbled.

"I think you can, and I'm assuming that by 'they' you mean the publishers?"

"Yes."

"Well…. okay, I'm bad at making people feel better. But if you keep sending things to publishers, one of them will like it." It was true, I was horrible at making people feel better, and just general emotions. Phil was the one to go to.

"And what if no one does? I don't really have a backup plan..." Grace said. Oh, did I know that feeling.

"Well...I'm sure you could figure something out," I try.

"Thanks." she said.

"For what?" I ask.

"I don't know... for trying to make me feel better, I guess. I mean, you don't even know me. It's people like you that make me have general, legitimate faith in human beings." Grace said. Now... why did she look familiar?

Grace's P.o.v  
I woke up to a knocking on my door.

"Graaaaaace! Why do you keep your door locked?" I heard Cameron whine.

"Ohh... it is way too early for this…." I said as I got up, and unlocked the door.

"What if you have a heart attack or a stroke or something while you're sleeping? You could die!" That's the first thing Cameron said when I opened the door.

"With your actions in an emergency, I would die anyways." I said, rubbing my face.

"Hey! I am CPR certified, thank you very much!" Cameron retorted. It's then that I realize she's holding a camera.

"Are you filming this?" I asked.

"Say hi to YouTube!"

"Oh, you could have warned me." I said, closing the door.

"Remember, we have things to do today." Cameron said through the door before walking off. I could still faintly hear her talking to the camera.

"Whatever," I grumble, even though I know she can't hear me. But I do have things to do today, all of which are written on my to-do list. I have a sorta-kinda addiction to writing lists. I'm pretty sure it coincides with my clean freak habits. Everything in my room has a place and everything is in its place. Including the shoebox. As the name suggests, it's just a shoebox crammed full of rejection letters from various publishers. It was pretty full. I know I shouldn't keep them, they were not helping my already nonexistent self-confidence... but, I just couldn't get rid of them…. I sighed…I almost fell back into bed. I almost regret that I chose to marathon 12 episodes of full metal alchemist brotherhood. Only getting six hours of sleep is unhealthy, but I enjoy delving into the lives of fictional characters just a little bit more. Slowly and begrudgingly, I still get dressed and open the door to go find Cameron.

Dan's P.o.v.  
"Hey, Dan, have you watched CamaCola's new video?" Phil asked.

"No. Let me see." I sat next to him.

"Sooooo…watcha doing on the internet?" Cameron asked, showing a laptop screen on someone else's lap.

"Okay, first of all, I don't know what you're expecting, I'm just on word. Second, if you continue filming me, I will take the camera and throw it out the window." Cameron's friend said.

"Well, that wasn't very nice, Grace." _Grace?_

"I'm not nice." the screen went white for a moment, due to Cameron moving the camera so fast. Once the screen went normal, it showed a girl with dark long dark brown hair and who was glaring at Cameron.

"Shit." I mumbled.


	3. Chapter 3

"You do know Dan and Phil are coming over…right?" Cameron said from the couch.  
"And…?"  
"And you're wearing extremely short shorts."  
"Well, at least I'm proud of my body." I answered, hand on hip.  
"..No, you're not."  
"No. No, I'm really not. But don't worry, I'll change." I fumbled my hand around in the cupboard for a mug.  
"Are you going to change? Or are you going to hide in your room, like every other time a Youtuber has come over." I stopped making tea for a minute.  
"Why is that? Is it because-"  
"I'd feel very weird, being the only one that wasn't a YouTuber. Especially with how popular you guys are." I answered.  
"Really?" Cameron laughed. "That's stupid. You have nothing to worry about!"  
"Thanks."  
"Come on. Please don't hide in your room."  
"Are you guys filming a video?"  
"Yes."  
"Then my answer is the opposite of that."  
"How about after?" she asked. I didn't respond.  
"Grace?"  
"Fine." I went back to tea making.  
"Thank you!"  
"You sound like my mother."  
A pillow was thrown at my head.

"The laughter of child-like adults grates on my nerves." I growled as I slumped out of my dark sanctuary (my bedroom) for food.  
"I am not a child!" Both Cameron and Dan said simultaneously. Phil stayed silent.  
"Why are you not protesting this?" Cameron questions, looking at Phil. Dan continued looking at me.  
"I am a child-like adult. I'm not going to deny something what's true." Phil said.  
"Uh... okay. So, what kind of video were you making?" I asked, walking to the kitchen.  
"You need not know," Cameron said.  
"You have an American accent," Phil randomly said. I sighed.  
"Yeah... It appears I do."  
"Phil, you can't just ask people why they have American accents," Dan said.  
"Did you just...did you just make...what...?" Cameron points at Dan, who takes on a smug grin.  
"Oh god." I muttered. I could still feel Dan's eyes on me as I rummaged around in the cupboard.  
"So what were you doing has we filmed that video?"  
"I was talking to a real person." I smiled.  
"It doesn't count if it was on a fanfiction website!" Cameron exclaimed.  
"Really? What if I've meant them in real life? What if they were my best friend for a while?" I questioned.  
"Fine. I guess that counts."  
"So then who were you talking to?" Phil asked.  
"An awesome person, a girl named Sophia. Haven't talked to her since I moved from California." I said, finding the almost empty bag of goldfish and opening it.  
"Goldfish again? You have a problem!"  
"Hey, I've had this problem since I was 12, you know this," I pointed out.  
"And you're wearing completely black?" Cameron pointed out. Dan was still staring at me. It was kind of creepy.  
"Ok. First of all, is this the 'Criticize Grace Day'? Second, at least I changed." I said, looking down at my plain black leggings and shirt.  
"Well. Now that we actually filmed that video, do you want to get food?" Dan asked. Cameron automatically looked at me for confirmation.  
"What?" I asked. She shook her head.  
"I don't know... we could always go out and get dinner then come back here." Cameron said.  
"Ok. How about you do that and we stay here." Dan said. "Because then I wouldn't have to go outside." I started walking back down the hallway.  
"Oh, no no no no. You are not going to go back and hiding." Cameron said taking my arm and dragging me back into the living room. I sighed but went and sat on the couch.  
"But fine." Cameron resumed their conversation. "I will go out into the filthy outdoors and scavenge for food. Does anyone particular care what dinner I will go and forage for?" Cameron asked. Dan and Phil shook their heads. "Grace, do you care?" Dan asked, looking me directly in the eye. "Not particularly." "Of course you don't. You're very different than at Starbucks." He muttered. "What?" Cameron asked. "Uh…" he must have gotten my wide eyed expression because he continued with, "Nothing..." "Reasons why you're an awful human being much?" Cameron muttered has she got up to leave. "Well, since there were no preferences, I shall return with Thai food!" she exclaims with a flourish.

After the door slammed shut, Phil started talking.  
"Wait. Have you guys have met before?" Phil asked.  
"Yes." I said. "And, Dan, if you could just not mention this to Cameron. I didn't tell her about the Starbucks incident."  
"Wait. Starbucks incident?" Phil said.  
"Yeah." we both said in sync.  
"But how did I not know you're Cameron's friend? I've been over here more than once. And I've never met you." Dan pointed out.  
"Yeah? If you came over here before 2 years ago, then I was still in America. I'm a fairly new edition. Plus I kind of hide in my room all the time. Probably because Cameron is still my only friend here…"  
"Sounds like depression to me." I could hear Phil mutter. I was thinking about replying to that with a murder threat, but I chose to ignore it.  
"I wish you would just forget everything that happened at Starbucks. It was a mistake, I was just really emotional and sad and normally I would have just walked away. Alright?" I said to Dan  
"I really don't think I can do that..." he said.


	4. Chapter 4

Grace's P.O.V.  
"Why is the Attack on Titan theme song playing?" I thought groggily, covering my head with my pillow. Wait… I stretched out a hand and grabbed my phone. Someone was calling me. The anime theme song stopped.  
"Well. That woke me up..." I said. Deciding that it's too early for this shit, I click my phone off, and tried to fall back asleep. Until my text alert went off...  
"What?" I muttered. I didn't recognize the number…it said:

 **hi grace! By the way, it's Dan…**

"Cameron!" I shouted.

What the hell. I thought Dan got the message. I didn't want to talk to him. I got up and stalked to Cameron's room. She was half awake, rubbing her eyes, and I smirked. This time it was me waking her up. Not the other way around.  
"Oh, hello Grace. How are you this fine morning?" she yawned.  
"What is this?" I asked, sticking my phone in her face. She pushed it back a little so she could look at it.  
"A surprise!" she exclaimed.  
"What?" I asked.  
"I gave him your number!" she grinned.  
"What?" I asked again.  
"Of course, I mean, he asked…"  
"What?" I asked yet again, before storming out of the room. He asked? Why would he ask for my number? I reiterate. I thought he understood I didn't want to talk to him. I decided to text back, asking why he was texting me. He texted back right away.  
"I want to be friends." are you fucking kidd- I walked into a wall.

Dan's P.O.V.  
"Hi!" Cameron said when she opened the door.  
"Why do we always seem to come to your house?" I muttered. Cameron merely shook her head.  
"Where's Grace?" Phil asked.  
"She's not here... she'll be back though." Cameron replied, walking quickly to the couch. Phil and I followed.  
"What's Grace doing?" I asked. Was she having a Starbucks incident with another guy? The thought oh so slightly stung.  
"She's picking up her cat."  
"What?" we both replied to that.  
"She can explain it." Cameron said.

Yeah... she could definitely explain. If she ever got back. I thought. It had been an hour and grace was still missing in action. Or not. The door banged open. Grace walked in with a cat carrier. I think it was the first time she had a genuinely happy expression.  
"The amount of paper work I just did wasn't even funny." she mumbled.  
"So... a cat." I said.  
"Yup!" she said enthusiastically, setting the carrier on the floor, sitting next to it.  
"So, they actually let him into England." Cameron said in a questioning tone.  
"Ok, first, you had him before? Second, why wouldn't he be allowed to cross the border?" I decided to ask.  
"First, I've had him since I was 17. Second, England has no animals with rabies. I'm pretty sure you guys want to keep it that way. But, actually, all the animal needs is a rabies vaccine then a 21 day waiting period. And they have to meet some other requirements, like being micro-chipped." Grace opened the cage, and a white blur zoomed out of it and under the couch.  
"Dammit." Grace muttered, crawling over and looking under the couch, dragging the cat out. It was white, or ivory with a brown tint in some places. Its tail, and ears, and paws were gray. Its nose was black. But the most interesting thing about it was the light blue eyes, and the mask of gray fur that indeed looked like a mask.  
"He or she?" Phil asked, automatically taking interest.  
"He."  
"What's his name?" Phil continued.  
"Twiddle."  
"Twiddle?" I asked. "What kind of name is that?"  
"What kind of name is Cleopatric for a cat?" Grace glared at Cameron.  
"What?" I asked.  
"If I ever get a cat, I'll name it Cleopatric. But, for some reason, Grace deems that an unacceptable name for a cat after naming one Twiddle." Cameron explained, Grace and her still glaring at each other. They seem to have had this argument before.  
"Anyway, Twiddle is short for 33." Grace answered my question.  
"Why 33?" Phil asked for me.  
"He was the 33rd cat my mom had had in her life." Grace laughed at our shocked faces.  
"Anyway." Grace went down the hallway and into her room. Who said anyway when they left the room?  
But she looked really excited and happy. And I wished I saw that more often. I would have to start thinking of ways to make it happen. I turned back to Cameron and Phil, and groaned. They were staring at each other in a "loving way" and without talking. They were making weird faces at each other in turn and giggling quietly. Happy couples. Wait... please don't tell me they're a happy couple, I thought.


End file.
